Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann variant
Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann CASA 1.131L
CASA 1.131 with the 150 hp ENMA Tigre G-IVB, the most powerful version of the Spanish series and the designation carried today by the Jungmann flying worldwide after their retirement from the Spanish Air Force.
History
The 1983 Air Britain Digest explains that CASA production continued until 1960, when some 500 had been built, and that some of these received the 150 hp ENMA Tigre G-IVB and were designated CASA 1.131L. The German Wikipedia confirms the two Tigre ratings —125 hp G-IV A and 150 hp G-IV B— for the aircraft that followed the 200 Hirth-engined ones. The CASA Jungmann Research Team adds that the Tigre was built in six versions and that the latest was capable of inverted flight and had a starter and generator. The sources do not split how many of the 330 Tigre-engined aircraft left the factory as 1.131Ls and how many as 1.131Es.
The 1.131L is, above all, the Jungmann that survives. When the Spanish Air Force struck off its last Bückers in 1988, much of the fleet passed into private hands in Spain and abroad. The Real Aero Club de España reports on the work of identifying every surviving CASA 1.131L that Paco Rivas, Brian Karli and Johnny Comstedt have been carrying out for almost fifteen years: the report "CASA 1.131L Jungmann all over the world", in its second edition of January 2023, traces each airframe by its original E.3B number and its fuselage serial, because fuselages were swapped during factory overhauls and many aircraft changed identity. The second edition also includes the examples that Jesús Ballester rebuilt or built anew at the Bücker Prado workshops.
The result is a remarkable diaspora: the register lists Spanish Jungmann flying or under restoration in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and the United States, in addition to those kept airworthy by the Fundación Infante de Orleans and the Fundación Aérea Antonio Quintana at Cuatro Vientos.